FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

I saw the interception where the receiver ran the wrong route. I thought the other two were bad throws. His first one was against a blitz and he threw to a covered hot receiver. He threw it too hard and the window was small for the receiver to catch it. The ball popped in the air and was intercepted.

No, it was a catchable ball. Watch the archive; the pass is at the 46:30 mark. The pass hit the receiver in both hands. Plus, Conway was a good ten yards away from the receiver. There's no such thing as throwing the ball too hard when there's that much space between passer and receiver. The window was indeed small, but the ball bounced off the hands of the NPU WR (who shall remain nameless) without any contact from a Wheaton defender. He should've caught that ball.

Wheaton blitzed Conway in part because they say on film that pressure makes him less accurate because he tends to have happy feet when you move him off his launch point. When he can step into a throw with confidence he throws it as well as anyone. His first TD pass against the blitz was a laser and perfectly placed against good coverage. Wheaton really didn't blitz much in the 4th quarter with a sizable lead.

None of which changes the point that Wheaton did not sack Conway, blitz or no blitz.

[79jaybird]

Good points Greg.  My point was that the team we faced in 1999 still had the traditional Augie TOP offensive game plan and a dominant defense.  They beat us 62-0 and 58-0 (granted we were a weak squad),  and had a stingy defense.  I don't think the recent Augie teams have had the same characteristics.  They certainly are not getting the lion's share of the top IHSA recruits anymore,  and the prestige of Augie isn't what it used to be.

[Augie6]

As for Augie- IMO, Augie has been on a downhill slide since the Schmulbach era.  Barnes had a couple of good years yes,  but it didn't seem (from a non Augie person) that he was able to recruit as well as his predecessors could.

How the heck can you throw Jim Barnes under the bus like that, Mark? For crying out loud, the guy won three CCIW titles in eleven years. That's not chicken feed. His .727 winning percentage in CCIW play ranks him seventh all-time (and one of the guys who is ahead of him only coached four games, winning three of them). No, his tenure wasn't as illustrious as those of his two predecessors, but it's totally unfair to compare him to Reade and Schmulbach and come to the conclusion that he was unsuccessful, or that the Augie program was on a "downward slide" thanks to him. Nobody can compare to Bob Reade, and, in terms of Tom Schmulbach's head coaching legacy, he ironically had the virtue of only putting in five seasons at the helm -- which means that he benefitted from the small sample size of a short tenure. (In fact, Augie won the CCIW title in his final season as titular head coach, 1999, in spite of the fact that Schmulbach was sidelined with cancer that year and the team was run in his absence by acting head coach Larry Johnson)

Couldn't agree more about Barnes.  It's really not fair to compare anyone's record to Coach Reade.  There is an inevitable "downward slide" when you compare any coach to what he did.  The bottom line is that Coach Barnes had a career winning percentage of .712 over his 16 years of head coaching at Wooster and at Augie.  Hard to argue against that being a successful career.  In fact, when you look at his CCIW winning percentage, he ranks ahead of Eash, Larson, Poelker, Bishop, Keller and Beck.  Did he achieve everything he wanted to during his time at Augie?  I'm sure he would probably tell you he did not.  But do I think he did everything he could to keep Augie competitive within the CCIW and, at times, relevant on the national stage?  I do.  Coach Barnes worst seasons during his 16 years were two 5-5 campaigns, one with Wooster and one with Augie.  Assuming there is no way that Augie finishes above .500 this season (which is a pretty safe assumption), Coach Cushman's best two season of his 4 at Augie will the the last two 5-5 seasons.  Remember, Cushman's first season he had 15 starters returning from a 6-4 team and he managed to finish 2-8.  Safe to say he has pretty much guided the bus off the cliff.

[Augie6]

Good points Greg.  My point was that the team we faced in 1999 still had the traditional Augie TOP offensive game plan and a dominant defense.  They beat us 62-0 and 58-0 (granted we were a weak squad),  and had a stingy defense.  I don't think the recent Augie teams have had the same characteristics.  They certainly are not getting the lion's share of the top IHSA recruits anymore,  and the prestige of Augie isn't what it used to be.

Jaybird,

Certainly agree with this statement and that's why Augie is as bad as they are right now.  I would argue that not only aren't they getting the lion's share of the top D3 IHSA recruits, they are getting few to none of the top D3 recruits in Illinois.  As was discussed a few weeks ago on the board, recruiting is a huge part of being a successful head coach at the college level and Augie isn't getting the recruits necessary to compete. 

[bleedpurple]

From the boxscore, Freshman QB Jack Warner did not play for IWU. Tyrell Bolden, their starting cornerback and a HS QB, played QB the entire game and ran 29x for 137 yards and passed 18-37 for 201 yds. That is not a good situation for IWU. If Jack Warner is out for any length of time or they are going to rely on Bolden, IWU is in serious trouble.

My compliments to the CCIW board. You have some really knowledgable posters and it always makes for interesting reading. Thank you! I have a question for anyone who cares to comment. When I read this I was really surprised that IWU would move a starting CB to QB when their freshman starter went down.  I know Mount Union has done this sort of thing with receivers from time to time (Cecil Shorts). But I also know they have a plethora of athletic receivers at any given time.  My question is this, shouldn't an upper level program in the CCIW have a legitimate back-up that can be used so as not to weaken another position like cornerback?  No one seemed to bat an eye, so maybe I am the only one wondering about this?

[Mr. Ypsi]

From the boxscore, Freshman QB Jack Warner did not play for IWU. Tyrell Bolden, their starting cornerback and a HS QB, played QB the entire game and ran 29x for 137 yards and passed 18-37 for 201 yds. That is not a good situation for IWU. If Jack Warner is out for any length of time or they are going to rely on Bolden, IWU is in serious trouble.

My compliments to the CCIW board. You have some really knowledgable posters and it always makes for interesting reading. Thank you! I have a question for anyone who cares to comment. When I read this I was really surprised that IWU would move a starting CB to QB when their freshman starter went down.  I know Mount Union has done this sort of thing with receivers from time to time (Cecil Shorts). But I also know they have a plethora of athletic receivers at any given time.  My question is this, shouldn't an upper level program in the CCIW have a legitimate back-up that can be used so as not to weaken another position like cornerback?  No one seemed to bat an eye, so maybe I am the only one wondering about this?

Yes, they should.  The former starter who would have been the backup quit the team when Warner beat him out.  Apparently there were no other options.

[Mr. Ypsi]

As for Augie- IMO, Augie has been on a downhill slide since the Schmulbach era.  Barnes had a couple of good years yes,  but it didn't seem (from a non Augie person) that he was able to recruit as well as his predecessors could.

How the heck can you throw Jim Barnes under the bus like that, Mark? For crying out loud, the guy won three CCIW titles in eleven years. That's not chicken feed. His .727 winning percentage in CCIW play ranks him seventh all-time (and one of the guys who is ahead of him only coached four games, winning three of them). No, his tenure wasn't as illustrious as those of his two predecessors, but it's totally unfair to compare him to Reade and Schmulbach and come to the conclusion that he was unsuccessful, or that the Augie program was on a "downward slide" thanks to him. Nobody can compare to Bob Reade, and, in terms of Tom Schmulbach's head coaching legacy, he ironically had the virtue of only putting in five seasons at the helm -- which means that he benefitted from the small sample size of a short tenure. (In fact, Augie won the CCIW title in his final season as titular head coach, 1999, in spite of the fact that Schmulbach was sidelined with cancer that year and the team was run in his absence by acting head coach Larry Johnson)

Couldn't agree more about Barnes.  It's really not fair to compare anyone's record to Coach Reade.  There is an inevitable "downward slide" when you compare any coach to what he did.  The bottom line is that Coach Barnes had a career winning percentage of .712 over his 16 years of head coaching at Wooster and at Augie.  Hard to argue against that being a successful career.  In fact, when you look at his CCIW winning percentage, he ranks ahead of Eash, Larson, Poelker, Bishop, Keller and Beck.  Did he achieve everything he wanted to during his time at Augie?  I'm sure he would probably tell you he did not.  But do I think he did everything he could to keep Augie competitive within the CCIW and, at times, relevant on the national stage?  I do.  Coach Barnes worst seasons during his 16 years were two 5-5 campaigns, one with Wooster and one with Augie.  Assuming there is no way that Augie finishes above .500 this season (which is a pretty safe assumption), Coach Cushman's best two season of his 4 at Augie will the the last two 5-5 seasons.  Remember, Cushman's first season he had 15 starters returning from a 6-4 team and he managed to finish 2-8.  Safe to say he has pretty much guided the bus off the cliff.

Well, maybe Larry Kehres!   (Though even he never had four consecutive Stagg Bowl wins.)

[Gregory Sager]

As for Augie- IMO, Augie has been on a downhill slide since the Schmulbach era.  Barnes had a couple of good years yes,  but it didn't seem (from a non Augie person) that he was able to recruit as well as his predecessors could.

How the heck can you throw Jim Barnes under the bus like that, Mark? For crying out loud, the guy won three CCIW titles in eleven years. That's not chicken feed. His .727 winning percentage in CCIW play ranks him seventh all-time (and one of the guys who is ahead of him only coached four games, winning three of them). No, his tenure wasn't as illustrious as those of his two predecessors, but it's totally unfair to compare him to Reade and Schmulbach and come to the conclusion that he was unsuccessful, or that the Augie program was on a "downward slide" thanks to him. Nobody can compare to Bob Reade, and, in terms of Tom Schmulbach's head coaching legacy, he ironically had the virtue of only putting in five seasons at the helm -- which means that he benefitted from the small sample size of a short tenure. (In fact, Augie won the CCIW title in his final season as titular head coach, 1999, in spite of the fact that Schmulbach was sidelined with cancer that year and the team was run in his absence by acting head coach Larry Johnson)

Couldn't agree more about Barnes.  It's really not fair to compare anyone's record to Coach Reade.  There is an inevitable "downward slide" when you compare any coach to what he did.  The bottom line is that Coach Barnes had a career winning percentage of .712 over his 16 years of head coaching at Wooster and at Augie.  Hard to argue against that being a successful career.  In fact, when you look at his CCIW winning percentage, he ranks ahead of Eash, Larson, Poelker, Bishop, Keller and Beck.  Did he achieve everything he wanted to during his time at Augie?  I'm sure he would probably tell you he did not.  But do I think he did everything he could to keep Augie competitive within the CCIW and, at times, relevant on the national stage?  I do.  Coach Barnes worst seasons during his 16 years were two 5-5 campaigns, one with Wooster and one with Augie.  Assuming there is no way that Augie finishes above .500 this season (which is a pretty safe assumption), Coach Cushman's best two season of his 4 at Augie will the the last two 5-5 seasons.  Remember, Cushman's first season he had 15 starters returning from a 6-4 team and he managed to finish 2-8.  Safe to say he has pretty much guided the bus off the cliff.

Well, maybe Larry Kehres!   (Though even he never had four consecutive Stagg Bowl wins.)

Larry Kehres never coached in the CCIW. Context is everything, Chuck.

From the boxscore, Freshman QB Jack Warner did not play for IWU. Tyrell Bolden, their starting cornerback and a HS QB, played QB the entire game and ran 29x for 137 yards and passed 18-37 for 201 yds. That is not a good situation for IWU. If Jack Warner is out for any length of time or they are going to rely on Bolden, IWU is in serious trouble.

My compliments to the CCIW board. You have some really knowledgable posters and it always makes for interesting reading. Thank you! I have a question for anyone who cares to comment. When I read this I was really surprised that IWU would move a starting CB to QB when their freshman starter went down.  I know Mount Union has done this sort of thing with receivers from time to time (Cecil Shorts). But I also know they have a plethora of athletic receivers at any given time.  My question is this, shouldn't an upper level program in the CCIW have a legitimate back-up that can be used so as not to weaken another position like cornerback?  No one seemed to bat an eye, so maybe I am the only one wondering about this?

The problem goes beyond the QB situation, as Bolden was arguably the best CB in the CCIW before being moved to quarterback last week. Losing him has to hurt the IWU defense significantly. In effect, Illinois Wesleyan has gotten weaker at two positions, not just one.

Incidentally, all four games will be at 1 pm next Saturday:

Wheaton @ Augustana
Elmhurst @ Carthage
Illinois Wesleyan @ Millikin
North Central @ North Park

[USee]

I saw the interception where the receiver ran the wrong route. I thought the other two were bad throws. His first one was against a blitz and he threw to a covered hot receiver. He threw it too hard and the window was small for the receiver to catch it. The ball popped in the air and was intercepted.

No, it was a catchable ball. Watch the archive; the pass is at the 46:30 mark. The pass hit the receiver in both hands. Plus, Conway was a good ten yards away from the receiver. There's no such thing as throwing the ball too hard when there's that much space between passer and receiver. The window was indeed small, but the ball bounced off the hands of the NPU WR (who shall remain nameless) without any contact from a Wheaton defender. He should've caught that ball.

Wheaton blitzed Conway in part because they say on film that pressure makes him less accurate because he tends to have happy feet when you move him off his launch point. When he can step into a throw with confidence he throws it as well as anyone. His first TD pass against the blitz was a laser and perfectly placed against good coverage. Wheaton really didn't blitz much in the 4th quarter with a sizable lead.

None of which changes the point that Wheaton did not sack Conway, blitz or no blitz.

That is simply not true Greg. Have you never heard of the "Elway Cross"? TD Conway double pumps with indecision and then fires a bullet that the receiver was clearly not ready for. It appears the blitz makes TD throw the ball sooner than he wanted to and he throws it off his back foot. I think he threw it too hard. You can't fire a bullet from 10 yds away. I don't know the play call so its hard to speculate but I can see equal blame here at a minimum. Doesn't matter, QB's get the INT stat regardless whose fault it is unfortunately.

[Gregory Sager]

We are not going to agree on this. That was a catchable ball that T.D. put right into the hands of the receiver. It's a WR's job to catch anything that hits him in both hands. There was plenty of distance between T.D. and the receiver for the latter to both see the ball and to get his hands up into position to catch it.

[Green Jello Shots]

From the boxscore, Freshman QB Jack Warner did not play for IWU. Tyrell Bolden, their starting cornerback and a HS QB, played QB the entire game and ran 29x for 137 yards and passed 18-37 for 201 yds. That is not a good situation for IWU. If Jack Warner is out for any length of time or they are going to rely on Bolden, IWU is in serious trouble.

My compliments to the CCIW board. You have some really knowledgable posters and it always makes for interesting reading. Thank you! I have a question for anyone who cares to comment. When I read this I was really surprised that IWU would move a starting CB to QB when their freshman starter went down.  I know Mount Union has done this sort of thing with receivers from time to time (Cecil Shorts). But I also know they have a plethora of athletic receivers at any given time.  My question is this, shouldn't an upper level program in the CCIW have a legitimate back-up that can be used so as not to weaken another position like cornerback?  No one seemed to bat an eye, so maybe I am the only one wondering about this?

Yes, they should.  The former starter who would have been the backup quit the team when Warner beat him out.  Apparently there were no other options.

IWU actually has a full stable of  reserve quarterbacks, including sophomore Henry Haeffner; who led Glenbard West to IHSA Class 7A state championship and freshman Brian Johnson from Willowbrook, who was a Tribune All-Stater and set some state passing records last year. I think the decision to start Bolden might have something to do with the fact that IWU's new Offensive Coordinator was formerly an assistant at Michigan when Denard Robinson was the QB there and Bolden has speed (4.4 40) and elusiveness that lend themselves to a scheme similar to the one that Robinson ran. The downside is he hadn't taken a snap in an actual game for two years, and he was given a crash course in practice last week hoping to bring him up to speed. That may been expecting too much. Here's hoping Jack Warner makes a speedy recovery (he supposedly has a mild case of mono) and/or that Bolden benefits from another week of preparation.

[AndOne]

From the boxscore, Freshman QB Jack Warner did not play for IWU. Tyrell Bolden, their starting cornerback and a HS QB, played QB the entire game and ran 29x for 137 yards and passed 18-37 for 201 yds. That is not a good situation for IWU. If Jack Warner is out for any length of time or they are going to rely on Bolden, IWU is in serious trouble.

My compliments to the CCIW board. You have some really knowledgable posters and it always makes for interesting reading. Thank you! I have a question for anyone who cares to comment. When I read this I was really surprised that IWU would move a starting CB to QB when their freshman starter went down.  I know Mount Union has done this sort of thing with receivers from time to time (Cecil Shorts). But I also know they have a plethora of athletic receivers at any given time.  My question is this, shouldn't an upper level program in the CCIW have a legitimate back-up that can be used so as not to weaken another position like cornerback?  No one seemed to bat an eye, so maybe I am the only one wondering about this?

IWU has two QBs on its roster, soph Henry Haeffner, and fresh Brian Johnson, both of whom preformed and excelled in highly skilled and competitive conferences in the western suburbs of Chicago. I did see both play a couple of times. From what I remember, Haeffner was a bit more of a runner in addition to his fine passing skills, while Johnson was more of an outstandingly pure passer. While I have not seen Warner play, and must assume he certainly earned his starting position, it's hard to imagine there was that much separation between the three. Furthermore, it seems like the IWU attack would have been more efficient overall when led by a player who has only played the QB position, and was recruited as such. Was inserting a superior DB at the QB spot rather than a "regular" QB, a tactical error by IWU Coach Esch?

[Green Jello Shots]

From the boxscore, Freshman QB Jack Warner did not play for IWU. Tyrell Bolden, their starting cornerback and a HS QB, played QB the entire game and ran 29x for 137 yards and passed 18-37 for 201 yds. That is not a good situation for IWU. If Jack Warner is out for any length of time or they are going to rely on Bolden, IWU is in serious trouble.

My compliments to the CCIW board. You have some really knowledgable posters and it always makes for interesting reading. Thank you! I have a question for anyone who cares to comment. When I read this I was really surprised that IWU would move a starting CB to QB when their freshman starter went down.  I know Mount Union has done this sort of thing with receivers from time to time (Cecil Shorts). But I also know they have a plethora of athletic receivers at any given time.  My question is this, shouldn't an upper level program in the CCIW have a legitimate back-up that can be used so as not to weaken another position like cornerback?  No one seemed to bat an eye, so maybe I am the only one wondering about this?

IWU has two QBs on its roster, soph Henry Haeffner, and fresh Brian Johnson, both of whom preformed and excelled in highly skilled and competitive conferences in the western suburbs of Chicago. I did see both play a couple of times. From what I remember, Haeffner was a bit more of a runner in addition to his fine passing skills, while Johnson was more of an outstandingly pure passer. While I have not seen Warner play, and must assume he certainly earned his starting position, it's hard to imagine there was that much separation between the three. Furthermore, it seems like the IWU attack would have been more efficient overall when led by a player who has only played the QB position, and was recruited as such. Was inserting a superior DB at the QB spot rather than a "regular" QB, a tactical error by IWU Coach Esch?

Just to be clear; this wasn't a pick a name out of a hat decision by Coach Eash. Bolden's pedigree as a high school is every bit as impressive as Haeffner, Johnson, or any of the IWU backup QB's. He was a 3X all-conference QB in high school, who drew DI interest and was referenced by both the Tribune and Sun Times as a good college QB prospect and had a profile on Rivals.com as a dual threat QB. He made the switch to DB when he figured out he would sit behind Rob Gallick for 3 years.

[USee]

We are not going to agree on this. That was a catchable ball that T.D. put right into the hands of the receiver. It's a WR's job to catch anything that hits him in both hands. There was plenty of distance between T.D. and the receiver for the latter to both see the ball and to get his hands up into position to catch it.

We definitely don't agree on this. 

[AndOne]

Green--

Your point is well made and well taken. One of the primary considerations leading to the formulation of my question was the fact that Haeffner & Johnson have functioned as a QB on a continuous basis since HS without spending an extended time playing another position.
During his time as an elite DB, Bolden's QB skills most likely eroded to some degree.